The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Saturday suspended one-year sentence awarded to Congress legislator Asha Kumari in a land grab case dating back to 1998.
Hearing the plea of the Dalhousie legislator, Justice Rajiv Sharma said the substantive sentence of was suspended, subject to her depositing the fine amount within a period of four weeks and furnishing a bail bond.
However, the high court asked her to appear in the trial court as and when directed and surrender to serve the sentence in case her appeal was dismissed.
Her counsel argued that she was on bail during trial and her appeal has been admitted. The hearing of appeal will take some time.
A special court in Chamba on February 26 sentenced Asha Kumari and six others in the land grab case.
He also handed over one-year jail terms each to two other accused and three-year jail each to four others along with Rs.5,000 fine in the case.
Asha Kumari is presently a secretary of the All India Congress Committee.